Browne Willis manuscripts at the Bodleian Library

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Browne Willis (1682-1760), antiquary, numismatist, and architectural patron.

Browne Willis's Library

Introduction and project outline

Research programme

Collected printed books

Collected historical manuscripts

Correspondence

Papers written, and commissioned, by Willis

Papers of Dr Thomas Willis (1621-1675)

Personal family papers

Numismata Willisiana: Cabinet of English coins

"Rubbish and Sweepings" of his study

Some Account of Browne Willis (1760)

Published works

Browne Willis MSS at the Bodleian Library

Index to the Browne Willis manuscripts - reference 'MS Willis' - in the Special Collections and Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University.
MS Willis no.	Description.
1.	Records relating to Bucks, concerning livings, churches, with replies to his 1712 questionnaire.
2.	Parochial collections for Bucks, papers relating to Cardinal Wolsey, miscellaneous notes including 'county proverbs', Willis's benefactions to Bletchley church, and a pedigree and account of the Eliot family.
3.	Extracts from Domesday relating to Bucks, partly in Browne Willis's hand, with a few additional papers.
4.	Churches of Aylesbury & Ashendon hundreds.
5.	Volume containing assorted papers.
6.	The Antiquities of Buckinghamshire: The Hundred of Buckingham.
7.	Volume containing miscellaneous Bucks records copied for Browne Willis.
8.	Miscellaneous Bucks records, including pedigrees of county families.
9.	List of members of the Lower House of Parliament, 1290-1715.
10.	Parishes in the Hundred of Desbrough, Bucks.
11.	Miscellaneous Bucks records, including drawings of churches.
12.	Miscellaneous Bucks records.
13.	'Notitia Ecclesiastica, being some short extracts in the parishes in the archdeaconry of Buckingham'.
14.	Extracts from the Registers of the archdeaconry of Buckingham, 1395-1710.
15.	Notes connected with Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria for the counties of Surrey-Yorkshire.
16.	Assorted papers, transcribed from Peter Le Neve's records, including pedigrees and arms of families of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
17.	'Buckingham Collectanea'.
18.	Assorted papers, including material relating to Parliamentary history and the Welsh cathedrals.
19.	Buckinghamshire pedigrees supplied to and annotated by Browne Willis.
20.	Assorted papers.
21.	'Buckinghamshire Collectanea', with pedigrees of Bucks families.
22.	Notes connected with the Hundred of Buckingham, with letters and miscellaneous papers.
23.	Notes connected with the Hundred of Stoke, Bucks.
24.	Notes connected with the Hundred of Newport, Bucks.
25.	Miscellaneous Bucks notes.
26.	Notes connected with Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria for the counties of Nottingham-Surrey.
27.	Extracts from Bucks Patent Rolls.
28.	Extracts from Feets of Fines, Bucks.
29.	Notes connected with Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria for the counties of Bedfordshire-Dorset.
30.	Three old manuscripts: a valuation of the county of Bucks (1620); copies of Provision money rolls for Bucks (early 18th C); a copy of the Charter of the County Town of Bucks, renewed in 1553.
31.	Poll for county of Bucks, 2-3 Sep 1713.
32.	Copies of Buckinghamshire wills, 1517-1699.
33.	Church notes for the Hundred of Burnham, Bucks.
34.	Church notes for the Hundred of Cottesloe, Bucks.
35.	Collections concerning ecclesiastical antiquities of York, containing many letters to Browne Willis.
36.	Collections relating to Llandaff cathedral, with many letters to Browne Willis.
37.	Collections relating to St David's cathedral, with some drawings, with many letters to Browne Willis.
38.	Collections relating to various cathedrals and dioceses, with many letters to Browne Willis.
39.	Collections relating to the cathedral and diocese of Lincoln, with many letters to Browne Willis.
40.	Extracts from the Patent Rolls and Escheat Rolls for Bucks, with indexes.
41.	Collections relating to the cathedral and diocese of Lincoln, with some letters to Browne Willis.
42.	Collections relating to the cathedral and diocese of St Asaph, with many letters to Browne Willis.
43.	Collections relating to the cathedrals and dioceses of Gloucester and Bristol, and also churches of Dorset, with many letters to Browne Willis.
44.	Collections relating to English Monasteries, also with material relating to Bucks.
45.	Collections relating to the cathedrals and dioceses of Ely, Oxford, and Peterborough, with many letters to Browne Willis.
46.	Collections relating to various cathedrals and monasteries in England and Wales, with plans and drawings.
47.	Collections relating to the cathedrals and dioceses of Litchfield and Hereford, includes some letters to Browne Willis.
48.	Notes connected with Notitia Parliamentaria, with a printed prospectus for his proposed next edition; includes many letters to Browne Willis, as well as some original manuscripts from around 1604.
49.	Abstracts of leases of abbey and crown lands in the reign of Elizabeth manuscript.
50.	La Neve's Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae (1716), with notes and papers of Browne Willis.
51.	Notes connected with Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria, for the counties of Essex--Northumberland.
52a.	A collection of wills, with a few pedigrees.
52b.	Volume of papers concerned with the building of St Martin's, Fenny Stratford.
53.	Miscellaneous extracts from the Patent, Close, Fine, and other Rolls, 1199-1376.
54.	Poll book for 1713 Buckingham county election, 2-3 Sep 1713.
55.	Poll book for the Dorset county election, 6 Sept 1727, with some notes.
56.	Poll book for the Sussex county election, 3 Sept 1713.
57.	Collection of copies of thirteen English historical treatises & records.
58.	Collection of copies of eighteen English historical treatises & records.
59.	Original manuscript of the author's Surveys of the Cathedrals, as returned from the printer.
60.	Notes of Dorset churches made by Browne Willis during a three weeks' stay in Sep-Oct 1736, with some letters to Browne Willis.
61.	Lists of ecclesiastical persons connected with Salisbury and Chichester.
62.	Miscellaneous ecclesiastical papers.
63.	Papers concerning his collections of English coins and tradesmen's tokens.
64.	Papers compiled for Willis's Parachiale Anglicanum, with some letters to Browne Willis.
65.	Lists of wills of cathedral dignitaries, and of institutions to benefices.
66.	Papers relating to the dioceses of St Davids, Llandaff, Bangor, and St Asaph.
67.	A copy of the Domesday record for the Hundreds of Buckingham, Cottesloe, and Newport Pagnell in Bucks.
68.	Church notes chiefly for the parts of Buckinghamshire which could be reached in a day from Whaddon, also with two letters to Browne Willis.
69.	A draught of the author's Survey of the Cathedrals (vol 1, 1727).
70.	Assorted ecclesiastical notes.
71.	Miscellaneous ecclesiastical papers, including a copy manuscript in the hand of Thomas and Henry Willis, 1726.
72.	Notes relating to the dioceses of Lichfield, Worcester, Bristol, Gloucester, Hereford, Chester, St David's, Llandaff, Bangor, and St Asaph, with some letters.
73.	Miscellaneous church and parliamentary notes, including also notes about the Browne family.
74.	Parliamentary lists, 1511-1661.
75.	Notes relating to the cathedrals and dioceses of Lincoln, Ely, Oxford, Peterborough, and Salisbury, also with notes relating to the distribution of some of Willis's publications.
76.	Volume containing a survey of Ely and Oxford cathedrals, collections relating to the cathedrals and dioceses of Bristol and Peterborugh, and a list of the last abbots before the Reformation.
77.	Account of Hartwell parish, Bucks.
78.	Notes on English abbey churches, with some drawings.
79.	Lists and notes relating to dioceses of Lincoln, Ely, and Oxford.
80.	Lists and notes relating to the dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester, London, Winchester, Chichester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath & Wells, and Norwich.
81.	Collections relating to the cathedrals and dioceses of Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol, and Lichfield, also with notes on the prices of books.
82.	Collections relating to the province of York, the Welsh dioceses, Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, and Lichfield.
83.	Volume of miscellaneous papers, including some letters to Browne Willis.
84.	A list of English coins in the author's possession.
85.	Copies and abstracts from printed works and collections.
86.	Notes and drawings with relation to St David's cathedral.
87.	Notes relating to the cathedral and diocese of Lincoln made for Browne Willis, with some general papers.
88.	Notes respecting some English parliamentary boroughs.
89.	Draught of Browne Willis's History & Antiquities of Buckingham (1755).
90.	Notes relating to the cathedral of Lincoln, made for Browne Willis.
91.	Parliamentary lists for the counties of Essex-Rutland, with accounts of the borough towns of Essex and Gloucester by W. Slyford.
92.	Collections for the Hundred of Buckingham, parishes A-L.
93.	Collections for the Hundred of Buckingham, parishes M-Z.
94.	Accounts of the Hundreds of Burnham & Wycombe, Bucks.
95.	Miscellaneous ecclesiastical papers.
96.	Lists of incumbents in the deaneries of Mursley, Wendover, and Waddesdon, Bucks.
97.	Draught of part of the author's History & Antiquities of Buckingham (1755).
98.	Collections for the history of the Hundred of Newport Pagnell, volume 1, parishes A-C.
99.	Collections for the history of Hundred of Newport Pagnell, volume 2, parishes D-M.
100.	Collections for the history of Hundred of Newport Pagnell, volume 3, parishes N-Z.
101.	Collections for the history of Hundred of Cottesloe, volume 1 parishes A-M.
102.	Collections for the history of Hundred of Cottesloe, volume 2 parishes N-Z.
103.	An account of the diocese of St Asalph, made for Browne Willis.
104.	An account of the diocese and cathedral of Llandaff, made for Browne Willis.
105.	Account of diocese of Llandaff.
107.	Arms of the Cities and Borough-Towns in England and Wales (London, 1714), with manuscript notes by Willis of English and Welsh municipal corporations.
108.	Willis's Survey of the Cathedral Church of St Davids (London, 1717), interleaved with manuscript notes and additions by the author.
109.	Miscellaneous English church notes.
110.	Assorted papers.

Index to the Browne Willis manuscripts - reference 'MS Willis' - in the Special Collections and Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University.